Tapping American tourist mart
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah plans to tap cities in the Pacific coast of America in a bid push for more visitors to the State.
State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said he will be visiting San Francisco and the City of Portland, Oregon beginning Sept. 26 for a change of strategy away from the Chinese market.
“I will be meeting a couple of tourist agents in San Francisco, while stopping by Portland during the signing of the memorandum between Kota Kinabalu and Portland as sister cities.
“I am open to any possibilities and I don’t expect any miracles either,” he said after launching of the Regional Specific Tourist Guide Licence, here organised by the Sabah Tourist Guide Association (STGA).
The move also marked Sabah’s first foray into the American market for tourism.
Earlier, he said more efforts are now being undertaken to bring in more visitors here due to the sharp decline in the number of Chinese nationals visiting the State, due to the east coast kidnapping incidents and the MH370 disappearance.
Sabah experienced a 47 per cent drop in the number of arrivals from China in the first six months of 2014 compared to the same period last year.
Masidi said one of the reasons why he chose the two cities is due to connectivity, with daily flights from San Francisco to Hong Kong and Seoul, while there are also frequent direct flights from the said cities to Kota Kinabalu.
“It’s a logical decisionÉ of course the travelling time is more but it’s a convenient link to Sabah,” he said.
Masidi also hoped that the domestic market, which makes for the biggest bulk of arrivals to Sabah and arrivals from Korea, Japan and Europe will bolster the declining tourism sector.
However, he said further tourism promotion in China has been re-strategised to avoid any insensitive approach that may offend the Chinese people due to recent tragedies involving their nationals.
On another note, Masidi commended local tourist guides who had worked very hard to improve their situation and for taking on the challenges of an unpredictable market.
“Guiding is not a glamorous job. Sometimes you make money sometimes you don’t as you depend on customers,” he said.
Masidi also contributed RM10,000 to STGA in an effort to boost their activities.
Source: Daily Express
